Rising gas prices are as much a part of summer as the occasional sunburn, but with the start of May just barely in the rearview mirror, many motorists are already bemoaning the pinch at the pump.

Gas prices in Rockford jumped 18 cents in the past month, according to AAA, and Freeport-area drivers have seen a 20-cent spike over that same time. With about two weeks until Memorial Day, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year, local residents are left wondering how much higher costs will rise and what’s causing these inflated prices.

“If gas prices are going to go up, to say, $4 a gallon, then I wish they would just stay there,” said Freeport resident Pauline Collins. “It would be easier to budget if the prices stayed fixed. I am on a fixed income and when gas prices fluctuate, it makes it difficult to budget accordingly.”

But the reasons for spiking gas prices here aren’t terribly complicated, says R.J. Rymas, director of fuels for Road Ranger, based in Rockford.

“Lately, there have been a lot of issues with refineries going down,” Rymas says. “The Midwest has had to deal with flooding and then electrical problems with terminals and pipelines because of the flooding, which really slows down production. It’s really just an issue of supply and demand.”

The federally regulated May 1 switch to a summer blend of gasoline has exacerbated the problem. The move to a blend of gas containing lower levels of vapor, to help the liquid withstand summer temperatures, is not only more expensive to produce but also requires refineries to temporarily stop producing gas in order to make the conversion.

Rymas said the process of taking a refinery or pipeline offline, even temporarily, isn’t like flipping a switch.

“Shutting down a refinery is like stopping a freight train,” he said. “You can stop it but it takes a long time to get it going again.”

Further compounding prices at the pump are the rates at which the state levies additional taxes on the gasoline sales.

According to The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based group, Illinois currently has the fifth highest cumulative tax rate in the country at nearly 39 cents per gallon, just behind states such as New York, California and Hawaii. This contributes to the statewide average gas price of $3.95 per gallon of regular unleaded, which is well above the national rate of $3.56.

Rymas believes this high rate of taxation is one of the key issues in the recent jump in cost.

“Indiana, for example, only has a 1 percent tax on gas, but Illinois levies a series of taxes on all sales. That might not mean so much when gas is $1 a gallon, but it means much more when gas creeps over three bucks.”

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The U.S. Department of Energy website details a number of strategies to help residents reduce their gasoline costs, such as avoiding rapid acceleration and braking, observing posted speed limits and removing excess weight from their vehicles. But Dan Rieger, owner of Dan’s Route 66 in Freeport, joins other drivers in feeling helpless when it comes time to fill up the tank.

“It’s like the weather,” Rieger said of gas prices. “When it is good, people come out and do things. When it’s bad, people stay home. There is no sense in getting mad about it — we can’t change it.”

There might be some light on the horizon, at least according to Masoud Moallem, an economics professor at Rockford College, who says one of the most important factors in looking ahead at future prices is the international economic outlook.

“Gas prices in Rockford are reflective of national and international markets,” he said Friday. And while Moallem noted many countries are still creeping out of the recession and that instability in Middle East regions, such as Libya and Syria, are impacting the mood of global markets, “right now the attitude is very positive.”

Rymas agrees. He believes at least for now the area has seen its peak in spring prices.

“I don’t see a $4 number in the future,” he adds. “But the thing is, you never know.”